Recently, professor of philosophy (哲学)in the United States has written a book called Money and the Meaning of Life. He has discovered that how we deal with money in our daily life has more meaning than we usually think. One of the exercises he asked his students to do is to keep a record of every penny they spend for a week. From the way they spend their money, they can see what they really value in life.

    He says our relations with others often become dearly defined (清晰的）when money enters the picture. You might have wonderful relationship with somebody and you think that you are very good friends. But you will know him only when you ask him to lend some money. If he does, it brings something to the relationship that seems stronger than ever before or it can suddenly weaken the relationship if he doesn't. This person may say that he has a certain feeling, but if it is not carried out in the money world, there is something less real about it.

    Since money is so important to us, we consider those who possess a lot of it to be very important. The author interviewed some millionaires in researching his book.

    Question: What is the most surprising thing you have discovered about being rich, because you are a self-made man?

    Answer: The most surprising thing is how people give me so much respect. I am nothing. I don't know much. All I am is rich.

    People just have an idea of making more and more money, but what is it for? How much do I need for any given purposes in my life? In his book, the professor uncovered an important need in modem society: to bring back the idea that money is an instrument rather than the end. Money plays an important role in the material world, but expecting money to give happiness may be missing the meaning of life.

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    It's true that quite a few most respected scientific authorities have confirmed that the world is becoming hotter and hotter. There^'s also strong evidence that humans are contributing to the warming. Countless recent reports have proved the same thing. For instance, a 2010 summary about the climate science by the Royal Society noted that: The global warming over the last half - century has been caused mainly by human activity.”

    You may not believe that humans could change the planet's climate, but the basic science is well understood. Each year, billions of tons of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere because of human activity. As has been known for years, these gases hold heat that would otherwise escape to space, wrapping the planet in an invisible blanket.

    Of course, the earth's climate has always been changing due to “natural” factors such as volcanic eruption or changes in solar, or cycles concerning the Earth's going around the sun. According to the scientific research, however, the warming observed by now matches the pattern of warming we would expect from a build - up of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere - not the warming we would expect from other possible causes.

    Even if scientists did discover another reasonable explanation for the warming recorded so far, that would give birth to a difficult question. As Robert Henson puts it: “If some newly discovered factor is to blame for the climate change, then why aren't carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases producing the warming that basic physics tells us they should be?”

    The only way to prove with 100% certainty that humans are responsible for global warming would be to run an experiment with two identical Earths-one with human influence and one without. That obviously isn't possible, and so most scientists are careful not to state human influence as an absolute certainty.

    Forests are always losers at the Olympics, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.

    For the winter games in PyeongChang, South Korea, virgin forest was destroyed on Mount Gariwang to accommodate ski runs. For the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a ski run is set to wipe out part of the Songshan National Nature Reserve And let's not forget the 240 acres of Atlantic Forest that were leveled for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro to make way for a golf course.

    For the upcoming Tokyo games, environmental and human rights advocates have been raising alarms about the use of tropical wood to build the New National Stadium. Activists have fought against such environmental destruction. The damage is often permanent, threatens endangered plants and animals and, in some cases, causes conflicts with native people But frequently the country's organizing committee, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have found ways to make it reasonable—despite a paragraph in the Olympic Charter that states that the IOC's role is to "encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental issues."

    As it stands now. the IOC has little authority over a city's local organizing committee, which finally plans the event, Chappelet, professor of public management at the University of Lausanne, told Earther. "Even if the IOC is dissatisfied with the way host cities have prepared for the games, they have no built-in systems to supervise (监督) them so that they strictly follow the Olympic Charter. The only thing they can do if they're not happy is to withdraw the right to organize the game. But the IOC could include more enforcement (执行) systems into the contract (合同) they make with the host city, he added. That contract must be signed and obeyed by everyone. Those who break it could be fined.

    Boykoff, the author of several books on the Olympics, suggested a similar solution. "The IOC could insist that host cities prioritize their ecological promises, but instead they look the other way, time and time again," he said.

    Martha had been working for Miller Laboratories for two years, but she was not happy there. Nothing significant had happened in the way of promotions or salary increases. Martha felt that her supervisor, a younger and less experienced person than she, did not like her. In fact, the supervisor often said unpleasant things to her.

    One day, while talking with her friend Maria, she mentioned how discouraged she was. Maria gave her the name of a cousin of hers who was director of Human Resources Department for a large chemical company. Martha called him the next day and set up an interview on her lunch hour.

    During the interview, Mr. Petri said, "You're just the kind of person we need here. You're being wasted in your other job. Give me a call in a day or two. I'm sure we can find a place for you in our organization." Martha was so happy that she almost danced out of the building.

    That afternoon, Ruth Kenny, her supervisor, saw that Martha had come in ten minutes late from her lunch hour and she said, "Oh, so you finally decided to come back to work today?"

    This was the last straw. She could not take another insult. Besides, Mr. Petri was right: she was being wasted in this job.

    "Look," she said angrily, "if you don't like the way I work, I don't need to stay here. I'll go where I'm appreciated! Goodbye!" She took up her things and stormed out of the office.

    That night she called Maria and told her what had happened and then asked Maria, "What do you think?"

    "Well," said Maria carefully, "are you sure about the other job?"

    "Well, not exactly, but..."

    Maria continued, "Will you be able to get a recommendation from Ms. Kenny if you need one?"

    "A recommendation?…from Ms. Kenny?" hesitated Martha, in a worried tone.

    "Martha, I hope you didn't burn your bridges," Maria said. "I think I would have handled it differently."

German cities are redrawing road markings to create new cycle paths for the duration of the Covid-19 lockdown, as cyclists demand more space to physically distance on their way to work.

Local authorities in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin trialled (试行) temporary widening of two cycle paths on 27 March, arguing it would help cyclists keep the required 1.5-metre distance apart while car traffic was down owing to Germans' coronavirus (冠状病毒) restrictions.

On Friday, the council declared the plan a success because it had improved cycling safety while not blocking traffic.

The council said it had used removable tape and mobile signs to mark out the widened paths, which can be removed when the current restrictions on movement are lifted.

Residents in 133 other German cities have formally submitted applications for similar pop-up bike paths to their local authorities on the back of a campaign by Environmental Action Germany (DUH), an environmental NGO.

The campaign group cites new research linking air pollution to higher coronavirus death rates as an argument for redrawing road signs across the country. "The coronavirus is showing us that clean air is necessary," said DUH's chair, Jurgen Resch. "It is now especially important to temporarily make it more important for people to move safely on their bikes. This will help improve air quality, enable exercise in fresh air while keeping a safe distance and avoid unnecessary accidents."

In Germany, bike repair shops are allowed to work because of the Covid-19 going on. Three federal states, Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, have allowed bike shops to stay open.

A new study examines possible harm caused by microscopic pieces of plastic that end up inside people's bodies. These materials -known as microplastics and nanoplastics - can enter the body through the air or in food or drinks.

One new study suggests the buildup of such plastics inside the body can increase the risk of a stroke, heart attack or death. But the researchers noted the evidence presented cannot prove a direct link between tiny plastic materials and heart problems.

The study involved 257 people who had medical operations to clear blocked blood vessels （血管） in their necks. Italian researchers examined the fatty buildup the doctors removed from the carotid arteries, which supply blood and oxygen to the brain. Using two methods, they found evidence of plastics-mostly nanoplastics that cannot be seen-in the artery plaque（动脉斑块）of 150 patients. No evidence of plastics was seen in 107 patients.

The team followed these people for three years. During that time, 30 individuals, or 20 percent of the group with plastics, had a heart attack, stroke, or died from any cause. These rates dropped to about eight percent among those with no evidence of plastics. Research results were recently published in a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers admitted their study was very small. For example, it only looked at people with narrowed arteries who were already at risk for heart attacks and stroke.

Steve Nissen is a heart expert at the Cleveland Clinic in the state of Ohio who was not part of the study. He told the Associated Press he thinks the team's estimate that the risk of heart attack, stroke or death was four times greater seems too high. "It would mean that these microplastics are the most important cause of coronary heart disease （冠心病） yet discovered. And I just don't think that's likely to be right," Nissen said. "Maybe, it's just a wake-up call that perhaps we need to take the problem of microplastics more seriously." Nissen added.